Adopt A Healthy Approach To Carbs While Staying At Home

Over the several weeks, many people have been instructed to “Shelter in Place”. With everyone going on in the world today, it is a great idea to stay at home, however it may also lead to eating more.

For many, carbs including potato chips, french fries, frozen pizza and other easy-to make items have fast become the mainstay for countless family during “shelter in place”. Here are some great ideas how to adopt a healthy approach to carbs.

If
you are up to speed on the latest diet plans you have probably heard all about
carbohydrates. One minute we should be
avoiding them at all costs and then the next minute we should be filling our
faces with them. But what do they
actually do?

Carbohydrates
only role in the body is to provide your body with its preferred source of
energy. If you don’t eat any carbs your
body can get energy from dietary fats or protein. However, carbohydrates are much easier to
break down into energy so if they are available your body uses them first.

In addition to this, certain carbs are also a very good source of health boosting vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. These are nutrients that your body requires in very small amounts. They have a long list of health benefits in the human body but overall they promote optimal health and ensure that everything inside your body is running as it should be.

Which Carbohydrates
Are Healthy?

As
I mentioned above, there are plenty of conflicting opinions when it comes to
carbohydrates. So which carbs are
healthy? The answer is – natural carbohydrates.

For
example, a bar of chocolate contains carbohydrates but is not very healthy at
all. A banana also contains carbs but is
a much healthier choice. The key difference
between the two is that chocolate bars are highly processed whilst bananas are
all natural.

Natural
carbohydrates sourced from fruits and vegetables are normally much lower in
calories than processed carbs. Plus,
they contain lots of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients which are often
stripped out of processed carbs.

How Can You Eat
More Natural Carbohydrates?

The
simple answer is to eat less processed products and eat more fruits and
vegetables. However, it’s one thing to
say it and quite another to actually do it.
Here are a couple of tips that should help you along the way:

1) Make Sure to Drink a Glass of Cherry Juice Daily:- Losing belly fat improves you health. Not only will your pants fit better, but you’ll feel great by drinking a glass of cherry juice daily. According to a 2009 article in the Journal of Medicinal Food, participants who enjoyed a diet rich in cherries, including drinking tart cherry juice daily experienced overall lower body fat, including in the belly area. Learn more about tart cherry juice.

2) Make Sure Every Meal Contains At Least 1 Piece Of Fruit Or Veg:- If it’s breakfast time make sure you are having some fruit with your meal. If it’s lunch time make sure you’ve got some salad or steamed vegetables included. If it’s dinner time make sure you are fully incorporating vegetables into the dish. Doing this will supply your body with a healthy stream of natural carbohydrates right through the day.

3) Substitute An Unnatural Carbohydrate For A Natural Carbohydrate Each Day:- If you eat a chocolate bar and a bag of crisps every day, ditch one and replace it with an apple, no-added sugar dried cherries or an orange. Doing this will cut some calories out of your day and also increase your intake of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.

So if you think you don’t like fruits and vegetables make a real effort this year to find fruits and vegetables that you do like. There are thousands of different fruits and vegetables out there so the chances that you cannot find at least one which you like are pretty slim.

Once you have found some fruits and vegetables that you like follow the two steps above so that you are giving your body a regular supply of natural carbohydrates.

Summary

By adopting the healthy approach to carbohydrates discussed in this article you will achieve your New Year’s resolutions of “getting fitter” or “losing weight”. Natural carbs boost your fitness by giving your body the energy, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients it needs to perform at 100%.

They also help you lose weight as they are much lower in calories than processed carbohydrates. So fill up on the fruits and veggies, avoid the chocolate and soda and make this New Year the healthiest one ever.